Um Kamel stays steadfast in her East Jerusalem tent - international activists bring shampoo to Gaza
Marian Houk
March 08, 2009
March 8 is International Women's Day. It's celebrated more in other places than in the United States -- so it's worth mentioning here.
It's a good occasion to remember Um Kamel, who has been living in a tent -- all winter -- down the hill from her former home in East Jerusalem, perhaps a kilometer north of the Old City, from which she and her husband were evicted at dawn one day in mid-November, when he was on his death-bed.
He died, in the nearby St. Joseph's hospital, just a week-and-a-half later.
A separate mourning tent was erected next to the tent where Um Kamel has been residing.
She stayed in the tent, on land owned by another East Jerusalem Palestinian, and remained there, despite the agony of her husband's final days, despite the fact that the tent was literally bulldozed (it was just a tent!) on several occasions by the Israeli Border Police (even a tent, on private land with the permission of the owner, needs a permit!), despite the fact that there was no toilet, no shower, no kitchen, and all kinds of small animals and insects were running around, and that it was winter, and rainy and windy and cold. With a gentle manner, but evident determination, Um Kamel has received visitors -- dominated by the Islamic movement, with a few Jerusalem-based Palestinian Authority figures, and the steady accompaniment of a few international solidarity activists -- explaining her situation and her feelings.
All the while, Um Kamel has been patiently and peacefully demonstrating, while seemingly carrying the burden of almost the entire Palestinian national cause on her back.
Um Kamel and her terminally-ill husband were evicted from their home, which UNRWA built circa 1952 or so, on land granted Jordan, during the Jordanian administration of East Jerusalem and the West Bank that began in May 1948, during the fighting that surrounded the creation of the State of Israel. The deal, at the time, was that UNRWA would turn over ownership of the houses it built, if the refugee families living in them would agree to forego food assistance for three years. Um Kamel's husband's family moved in, she later married her husband and moved in, and they stayed there, raising a family, for over fifty years -- until the day of their eviction.
The eviction had been ordered months before, but the couple was not informed about the exact date it would take place. They were awakened at dawn by a large armed force, she was handcuffed, and they were dumped outside. Whatever they had left inside -- remaining furniture, and personal possessions -- was all lost.
As we have written before, an Israeli settler organization had filed claim on the property in early 1970's, claiming that it was Jewish before the 1948 war. Um Kamel and her family were utterly unaware of this until they applied for a permit to renovate their house, to partition it to accommodate the return of one of their adult married sons with his family, who would help take care of the couple.
The legal case is quite complicated.
In any case, a few years ago, a settler family moved into the part of the house that had been intended for the married son + family, and when they moved out, other settler families moved in, making for an all-too-close and extremely uncomfortable daily life.
There is a settler watchtower that was built next to the property a few years ago, in which a male guard sits all the time, under a bright light and a large white and blue Israeli flag.
The home from which Um Kamel and her husband were evicted is one of 26 or 27 structures in that area, in the heart of East Jerusalem, that the settler organization wants to demolish in order to build a big apartment complex to house 200 Jewish families.
Just next to the property where Um Kamel's tents (every time one is destroyed, it has been replaced) have been pitched is the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik, apparently a priest in the second Temple, which has become a place of regular Orthodox Jewish pilgrimage.
All of this -- particularly the tent -- are in the midst of the area where many European consulates (see below for recent EU report on the situation in Jerusalem) are built, and where many of their staff live. The U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem is just down the road, closer to the Old City. These international representatives pass Um Kamel and her tent, daily.
A digression -- but one with some significance: At the time that UNRWA built this house, let us not forget, Israel had been granted admission into the United Nations (that happened rather quickly, in November 1948, just a few month's after Israel's Declaration of Independence -- but also after months of discussion about whether or not Israel met one of the main criteria for UN membership, that is, being a peace-loving state). But Jordan was denied entry into the UN until 1955. Israel was a UN member state ... and Jordan was not! Why? Jordan's admission was blocked by the Soviet Union, as part of the Cold War, and this of course did not help communications on the ground, particularly regarding the two parts of Jerusalem, with the western part under Israeli control, and the eastern part under Jordanian control. which only the UN was in any position to facilitate. The UN had worked out the armistice arrangements between Israel and Jordan -- Israel was a UN member state, but Jordan was not -- but Jordan cooperated because it needed the cease-fire, and it needed a deal to remove the few Iraqi troops that had crossed Jordan to enter the former British Mandate of Palestine in support of the Arab cause in 1948. But that did not help the matter, and it did not help Jordan's application for membership: the Soviets were very angry because the West was opposing separate admission of each of the component states of the U.S.S.R. (that would have given the "Eastern" bloc a much larger membership, with more voting leverage in all UN bodies, including in the UN Security Council), so -- in a diplomatic tit-for-tat -- the Soviets blocked Jordan's application for UN membership, saying that the Hashemite Kingdom's independence was questionable, due to its very close relationship with the U.K. A package deal was finally worked out, under which Jordan was one of a group of states admitted all together, like a Moonie wedding -- but not until 1955.
Meanwhile, a group of 60 international women activists is now in Gaza (or, trying to enter -- it's not yet clear if they've actually been able to get through Rafah crossing from Egypt). One of the participants, Jessie Boylan, has written on her blog that in the group are "I and 59 others ... including the parents of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American killed by an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer in Gaza six years ago, and Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Alice Walker ... The group, organised and coordinated by CodePink, Women for Peace from the US, and the UNWRA Gaza Gender Division, are a mix of activists, writers, journalists, photographers, film-makers, videographers, students, academics, scholars, teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc. etc. ... We are bringing with us 1000 gift baskets to present to the women of Gaza on March 8, International Womenīs Day."
Many items needed in ordinary daily life are missing in Gaza, due to Israel's punitive military-administered blockade, which only admits items that the Israeli military has decided are "humanitarian necessities".
Jesse Boylan added, on her post, that "There were a group of 50 activists from America and Europe who were let in earlier this afternoon so we are hoping for the same īluckī. Also the George Galloway Viva Palestinia Convoy coming with 110 vehicals will be arriving at Rafah tomorrow night". The full posting can be read on her blog.
The AP has reported that "The trip, organized by the U.S. anti-war group Code Pink, is intended to push both Israel and Egypt to open the borders into Gaza, said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink who helped organize the trip ... Members of the group intend to stay in Gaza until March 11, Benjamin said [in order to deliver aid and meet with NGOs and residents]. During their trip, timed to coincide with International Women's Day on March 8, they will also deliver baskets filled with personal items such as shampoo for women in Gaza".
The AP story quotes Alice Walker, author of the prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, as saying that
she feels that "Americans who give so much military aid to Israel" should "understand how their money was being used ... 'It's very important that they understand what is happening, and that we hold our own administration accountable," she said ... 'I feel that what is happening in the Middle East is very important because the situation is so volatile', said Walker, speaking by telephone Saturday from the Rafah border crossing as her group waited to travel into Gaza. "I love people, and I love children and I feel that the Palestinian child is just as precious as the African-American child, as the Jewish child'." The AP report can be read in full here.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton said the same thing, on every public occasion, all over the Middle East, during her recent trip here -- about a girl-child in Gaza, at least. Concerning the increasingly-difficulty situation in Jerusalem, however, Clinton merely said that the Israeli actions were "unhelpful".
Israeli attorney Danny Seidemann goes much farther, in remarks he made last week to The Independent's Donald Macintyre. Of the demolition orders handed recently to Palestinian families living in another area of East Jerusalem, Silwan's crowded Al-Bustan neighborhood, on the southern side of the Old City Walls, Seidemann said that the Israeli plan for an archaeological park and tourist site is "something with the trappings of a Jewish evangelical theme park of the religious-nationalist right ... an ersatz biblical village."
The Independent article says that "The development provides for a cable car running from the Old City possibly to the Mount of Olives and what Mr Seidemann says are 'escalators running through the most important archaeological site on the planet'. Mr Seidemann believes the plan is 'dangerous' to the city's stability and potentially fatal to a two-state solution. He says for all its encroachments in East Jerusalem since 1967, Israel has always [previously, according to Seidemann] treated the religious and cultural 'complexity of this area with a good deal of reverence. But this is a clear departure from maintaining the cultural and religious integrity' of the city. He believes the plan could ignite the city, as did the building of a tunnel from the Western Wall to the Muslim quarter, which caused lethal rioting, and the walk Ariel Sharon took on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, which helped to trigger the second intifada. Beyond that, he says it could even to turn a basically political and territorial conflict into a fundamentalist religious one.
Its impact on a peace deal could be just as devastating, not least because it could create a new humanitarian refugee problem of profound significance, however historically small in scale, because of its location. 'This is a deal breaker', says Mr Seidemann. 'There will not be a peace agreement under any kind of foreseeable circumstances [for] 10, 20, 30 years, [if you create] a new category of Palestinian refugee. I consider the settler activities in Silwan to be a highly disproportionate strategic threat not only to the nature of the conflict and the viability and character of the city but also to a two state solution'."
As Donald Macintyre writes in the article, "This is no mere local zoning row. The largest planned demolition operation in Jerusalem since the Six Day War in 1967, it would trigger the eviction of 1,500 residents in what Palestinian officials say amounts to ethnic cleansing". This article in The Independent can be read in full here.
Israel is moving with great speed on all fronts to change the situation on the ground in its favor. But the situation for Palestinians is increasingly untenable, and the pressure building up is intense.
A report on "Jerusalem and the Middle East Peace Process, prepared by European Union Heads of Missions [apparently in Jerusalem], and dated December 2008, was leaked/released today by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD), and it is damning: "Long-standing Israeli plans for Jerusalem, now being implemented at an accelerated rate, are undermining prospects for a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem and a sustainable two-state solution ... Israel is, by practical means, actively pursuing the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem", the report states.
And, it charges that "Israelīs actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace making ... Settlement building in and around East Jerusalem continues at a rapid pace, contrary to Israelīs obligations under international law and the Roadmap, which were reaffirmed at Annapolis...
The EU report continues: "In 2008, the number of tenders in East Jerusalem has increased by a factor of nearly 40 compared to 2007 ... Relatively small in number but of particular concern are settlements being implanted in the heart of existing Palestinian neighbourhoods inside the Old City (total surface: 0.9 km2) and immediately surrounding areas (Silwan, Ras al-Amud, at-Tur, Wadi al-Joz, Sheikh Jarrah) with government assistance. Written evidence exists of the compliance, and monetary help, of individual ministries to settler activities in the Old City ... Incursions into the Haram Al Sharif on the Temple Mount by radical settler groups have increased in 2008. Particularly during the Jewish high holiday season, settlers paraded on the Haram compound on a frequent basis, sometimes with protection from Israeli security forces, in what appeared to be a show of strength, sometimes leading to clashes with Palestinians".
Concerning Restrictions on, and Demolitions of, Palestinian housing, the EU report says that "Palestinian areas of the city [Jerusalem] are characterised by poor roads, little or no street cleaning, limited sewage systems, few public services such as parks, pavements, clinics, libraries, community centres, youth clubs, sports fields, playgrounds or adequate school classrooms and an absence of well-maintained public spaces. This is in sharp contrast to areas where Israelis live both in West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem settlements. The provision of services in what is, according to Israeli definition, a single municipality, reflect discriminatory practices.
"The [Jerusalem] municipality places severe restrictions on the building of Palestinian housing in East Jerusalem. It only issues building permits for areas that have zoned master plans. Since Israel annexed East Jerusalem, more than 35% of its territory has been expropriated (more than 24 sq. km). Of the remaining areas, much is unzoned. In the zoned areas, development has been artificially 'capped' towards the goal of 'maintaining the demographic balance', leaving only 12% of East Jerusalem (most of which is originally Palestinian owned land) for Palestinian residential purposes. This 12% of Palestinian land is already densely built upon, and thus Palestinians build on this land (for which they pay municipal and other taxes) without building permits. They have no options but to adopt illegal behaviour against their will, even, in some cases, after having spent thousands of dollars to submit requests to the planning authorities and hiring lawyers in attempts to build legally. During the past years Palestinians have received fewer than 200 building permits per year; even these require a wait of several years and are usually a costly affair. The increasing Palestinian population means that many new Palestinian homes are built without permits and are therefore considered "illegal" by the Israeli authorities (although under the 4th Geneva Convention occupying powers may not extend their jurisdiction to occupied territory).
"Since 2004 around 400 houses have been demolished. 'Administrative demolitions' have also intensified since Annapolis, particularly in and around Jerusalem. According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), since Annapolis Israeli Authorities have demolished 95 houses in East Jerusalem out of a total of 330 house demolitions in the OPT (this represents an overall increase of 25 percent over the 11-month period prior to Annapolis). 420 homes are currently threatened with demolitions in the Mount of Olives neighbourhood. Legal proceedings temporarily halted 300 demolitions. During the first week of November new demolitions occurred in Silwan neighbourhood as part of the 80 demolition orders planned by the Israeli authorities in June 2005, claiming that they are illegal structures. If implemented, these demolitions would displace 1,000 people, including more than 700 children in Silwan. The number of pending demolition orders that have yet to be carried out in East Jerusalem is around 1000.
"House demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem are illegal under international law, serve no obvious purpose, have severe humanitarian effects, and fuel bitterness and extremism. The EU adopted a declaration on this issue on the 10th November of 2008 and expressed its concern to the Israeli authorities through an official demarche to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 1st December of 2008"...
It's a good occasion to remember Um Kamel, who has been living in a tent -- all winter -- down the hill from her former home in East Jerusalem, perhaps a kilometer north of the Old City, from which she and her husband were evicted at dawn one day in mid-November, when he was on his death-bed.
He died, in the nearby St. Joseph's hospital, just a week-and-a-half later.
A separate mourning tent was erected next to the tent where Um Kamel has been residing.
In the photo above, Um Kamel's house is the low stone structure seen at the far right of the picture, just above the white plastic extension of the tent.
She stayed in the tent, on land owned by another East Jerusalem Palestinian, and remained there, despite the agony of her husband's final days, despite the fact that the tent was literally bulldozed (it was just a tent!) on several occasions by the Israeli Border Police (even a tent, on private land with the permission of the owner, needs a permit!), despite the fact that there was no toilet, no shower, no kitchen, and all kinds of small animals and insects were running around, and that it was winter, and rainy and windy and cold. With a gentle manner, but evident determination, Um Kamel has received visitors -- dominated by the Islamic movement, with a few Jerusalem-based Palestinian Authority figures, and the steady accompaniment of a few international solidarity activists -- explaining her situation and her feelings.
All the while, Um Kamel has been patiently and peacefully demonstrating, while seemingly carrying the burden of almost the entire Palestinian national cause on her back.
Um Kamel and her terminally-ill husband were evicted from their home, which UNRWA built circa 1952 or so, on land granted Jordan, during the Jordanian administration of East Jerusalem and the West Bank that began in May 1948, during the fighting that surrounded the creation of the State of Israel. The deal, at the time, was that UNRWA would turn over ownership of the houses it built, if the refugee families living in them would agree to forego food assistance for three years. Um Kamel's husband's family moved in, she later married her husband and moved in, and they stayed there, raising a family, for over fifty years -- until the day of their eviction.
The eviction had been ordered months before, but the couple was not informed about the exact date it would take place. They were awakened at dawn by a large armed force, she was handcuffed, and they were dumped outside. Whatever they had left inside -- remaining furniture, and personal possessions -- was all lost.
As we have written before, an Israeli settler organization had filed claim on the property in early 1970's, claiming that it was Jewish before the 1948 war. Um Kamel and her family were utterly unaware of this until they applied for a permit to renovate their house, to partition it to accommodate the return of one of their adult married sons with his family, who would help take care of the couple.
The legal case is quite complicated.
In any case, a few years ago, a settler family moved into the part of the house that had been intended for the married son + family, and when they moved out, other settler families moved in, making for an all-too-close and extremely uncomfortable daily life.
There is a settler watchtower that was built next to the property a few years ago, in which a male guard sits all the time, under a bright light and a large white and blue Israeli flag.
The home from which Um Kamel and her husband were evicted is one of 26 or 27 structures in that area, in the heart of East Jerusalem, that the settler organization wants to demolish in order to build a big apartment complex to house 200 Jewish families.
Just next to the property where Um Kamel's tents (every time one is destroyed, it has been replaced) have been pitched is the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik, apparently a priest in the second Temple, which has become a place of regular Orthodox Jewish pilgrimage.
All of this -- particularly the tent -- are in the midst of the area where many European consulates (see below for recent EU report on the situation in Jerusalem) are built, and where many of their staff live. The U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem is just down the road, closer to the Old City. These international representatives pass Um Kamel and her tent, daily.
A digression -- but one with some significance: At the time that UNRWA built this house, let us not forget, Israel had been granted admission into the United Nations (that happened rather quickly, in November 1948, just a few month's after Israel's Declaration of Independence -- but also after months of discussion about whether or not Israel met one of the main criteria for UN membership, that is, being a peace-loving state). But Jordan was denied entry into the UN until 1955. Israel was a UN member state ... and Jordan was not! Why? Jordan's admission was blocked by the Soviet Union, as part of the Cold War, and this of course did not help communications on the ground, particularly regarding the two parts of Jerusalem, with the western part under Israeli control, and the eastern part under Jordanian control. which only the UN was in any position to facilitate. The UN had worked out the armistice arrangements between Israel and Jordan -- Israel was a UN member state, but Jordan was not -- but Jordan cooperated because it needed the cease-fire, and it needed a deal to remove the few Iraqi troops that had crossed Jordan to enter the former British Mandate of Palestine in support of the Arab cause in 1948. But that did not help the matter, and it did not help Jordan's application for membership: the Soviets were very angry because the West was opposing separate admission of each of the component states of the U.S.S.R. (that would have given the "Eastern" bloc a much larger membership, with more voting leverage in all UN bodies, including in the UN Security Council), so -- in a diplomatic tit-for-tat -- the Soviets blocked Jordan's application for UN membership, saying that the Hashemite Kingdom's independence was questionable, due to its very close relationship with the U.K. A package deal was finally worked out, under which Jordan was one of a group of states admitted all together, like a Moonie wedding -- but not until 1955.
************************
Meanwhile, a group of 60 international women activists is now in Gaza (or, trying to enter -- it's not yet clear if they've actually been able to get through Rafah crossing from Egypt). One of the participants, Jessie Boylan, has written on her blog that in the group are "I and 59 others ... including the parents of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American killed by an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer in Gaza six years ago, and Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Alice Walker ... The group, organised and coordinated by CodePink, Women for Peace from the US, and the UNWRA Gaza Gender Division, are a mix of activists, writers, journalists, photographers, film-makers, videographers, students, academics, scholars, teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc. etc. ... We are bringing with us 1000 gift baskets to present to the women of Gaza on March 8, International Womenīs Day."
Many items needed in ordinary daily life are missing in Gaza, due to Israel's punitive military-administered blockade, which only admits items that the Israeli military has decided are "humanitarian necessities".
Jesse Boylan added, on her post, that "There were a group of 50 activists from America and Europe who were let in earlier this afternoon so we are hoping for the same īluckī. Also the George Galloway Viva Palestinia Convoy coming with 110 vehicals will be arriving at Rafah tomorrow night". The full posting can be read on her blog.
The AP has reported that "The trip, organized by the U.S. anti-war group Code Pink, is intended to push both Israel and Egypt to open the borders into Gaza, said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink who helped organize the trip ... Members of the group intend to stay in Gaza until March 11, Benjamin said [in order to deliver aid and meet with NGOs and residents]. During their trip, timed to coincide with International Women's Day on March 8, they will also deliver baskets filled with personal items such as shampoo for women in Gaza".
The AP story quotes Alice Walker, author of the prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, as saying that
she feels that "Americans who give so much military aid to Israel" should "understand how their money was being used ... 'It's very important that they understand what is happening, and that we hold our own administration accountable," she said ... 'I feel that what is happening in the Middle East is very important because the situation is so volatile', said Walker, speaking by telephone Saturday from the Rafah border crossing as her group waited to travel into Gaza. "I love people, and I love children and I feel that the Palestinian child is just as precious as the African-American child, as the Jewish child'." The AP report can be read in full here.
************************
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton said the same thing, on every public occasion, all over the Middle East, during her recent trip here -- about a girl-child in Gaza, at least. Concerning the increasingly-difficulty situation in Jerusalem, however, Clinton merely said that the Israeli actions were "unhelpful".
Israeli attorney Danny Seidemann goes much farther, in remarks he made last week to The Independent's Donald Macintyre. Of the demolition orders handed recently to Palestinian families living in another area of East Jerusalem, Silwan's crowded Al-Bustan neighborhood, on the southern side of the Old City Walls, Seidemann said that the Israeli plan for an archaeological park and tourist site is "something with the trappings of a Jewish evangelical theme park of the religious-nationalist right ... an ersatz biblical village."
The Independent article says that "The development provides for a cable car running from the Old City possibly to the Mount of Olives and what Mr Seidemann says are 'escalators running through the most important archaeological site on the planet'. Mr Seidemann believes the plan is 'dangerous' to the city's stability and potentially fatal to a two-state solution. He says for all its encroachments in East Jerusalem since 1967, Israel has always [previously, according to Seidemann] treated the religious and cultural 'complexity of this area with a good deal of reverence. But this is a clear departure from maintaining the cultural and religious integrity' of the city. He believes the plan could ignite the city, as did the building of a tunnel from the Western Wall to the Muslim quarter, which caused lethal rioting, and the walk Ariel Sharon took on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, which helped to trigger the second intifada. Beyond that, he says it could even to turn a basically political and territorial conflict into a fundamentalist religious one.
Its impact on a peace deal could be just as devastating, not least because it could create a new humanitarian refugee problem of profound significance, however historically small in scale, because of its location. 'This is a deal breaker', says Mr Seidemann. 'There will not be a peace agreement under any kind of foreseeable circumstances [for] 10, 20, 30 years, [if you create] a new category of Palestinian refugee. I consider the settler activities in Silwan to be a highly disproportionate strategic threat not only to the nature of the conflict and the viability and character of the city but also to a two state solution'."
As Donald Macintyre writes in the article, "This is no mere local zoning row. The largest planned demolition operation in Jerusalem since the Six Day War in 1967, it would trigger the eviction of 1,500 residents in what Palestinian officials say amounts to ethnic cleansing". This article in The Independent can be read in full here.
*************************
Israel is moving with great speed on all fronts to change the situation on the ground in its favor. But the situation for Palestinians is increasingly untenable, and the pressure building up is intense.
A report on "Jerusalem and the Middle East Peace Process, prepared by European Union Heads of Missions [apparently in Jerusalem], and dated December 2008, was leaked/released today by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD), and it is damning: "Long-standing Israeli plans for Jerusalem, now being implemented at an accelerated rate, are undermining prospects for a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem and a sustainable two-state solution ... Israel is, by practical means, actively pursuing the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem", the report states.
And, it charges that "Israelīs actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace making ... Settlement building in and around East Jerusalem continues at a rapid pace, contrary to Israelīs obligations under international law and the Roadmap, which were reaffirmed at Annapolis...
The EU report continues: "In 2008, the number of tenders in East Jerusalem has increased by a factor of nearly 40 compared to 2007 ... Relatively small in number but of particular concern are settlements being implanted in the heart of existing Palestinian neighbourhoods inside the Old City (total surface: 0.9 km2) and immediately surrounding areas (Silwan, Ras al-Amud, at-Tur, Wadi al-Joz, Sheikh Jarrah) with government assistance. Written evidence exists of the compliance, and monetary help, of individual ministries to settler activities in the Old City ... Incursions into the Haram Al Sharif on the Temple Mount by radical settler groups have increased in 2008. Particularly during the Jewish high holiday season, settlers paraded on the Haram compound on a frequent basis, sometimes with protection from Israeli security forces, in what appeared to be a show of strength, sometimes leading to clashes with Palestinians".
*************************
Concerning Restrictions on, and Demolitions of, Palestinian housing, the EU report says that "Palestinian areas of the city [Jerusalem] are characterised by poor roads, little or no street cleaning, limited sewage systems, few public services such as parks, pavements, clinics, libraries, community centres, youth clubs, sports fields, playgrounds or adequate school classrooms and an absence of well-maintained public spaces. This is in sharp contrast to areas where Israelis live both in West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem settlements. The provision of services in what is, according to Israeli definition, a single municipality, reflect discriminatory practices.
"The [Jerusalem] municipality places severe restrictions on the building of Palestinian housing in East Jerusalem. It only issues building permits for areas that have zoned master plans. Since Israel annexed East Jerusalem, more than 35% of its territory has been expropriated (more than 24 sq. km). Of the remaining areas, much is unzoned. In the zoned areas, development has been artificially 'capped' towards the goal of 'maintaining the demographic balance', leaving only 12% of East Jerusalem (most of which is originally Palestinian owned land) for Palestinian residential purposes. This 12% of Palestinian land is already densely built upon, and thus Palestinians build on this land (for which they pay municipal and other taxes) without building permits. They have no options but to adopt illegal behaviour against their will, even, in some cases, after having spent thousands of dollars to submit requests to the planning authorities and hiring lawyers in attempts to build legally. During the past years Palestinians have received fewer than 200 building permits per year; even these require a wait of several years and are usually a costly affair. The increasing Palestinian population means that many new Palestinian homes are built without permits and are therefore considered "illegal" by the Israeli authorities (although under the 4th Geneva Convention occupying powers may not extend their jurisdiction to occupied territory).
"Since 2004 around 400 houses have been demolished. 'Administrative demolitions' have also intensified since Annapolis, particularly in and around Jerusalem. According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), since Annapolis Israeli Authorities have demolished 95 houses in East Jerusalem out of a total of 330 house demolitions in the OPT (this represents an overall increase of 25 percent over the 11-month period prior to Annapolis). 420 homes are currently threatened with demolitions in the Mount of Olives neighbourhood. Legal proceedings temporarily halted 300 demolitions. During the first week of November new demolitions occurred in Silwan neighbourhood as part of the 80 demolition orders planned by the Israeli authorities in June 2005, claiming that they are illegal structures. If implemented, these demolitions would displace 1,000 people, including more than 700 children in Silwan. The number of pending demolition orders that have yet to be carried out in East Jerusalem is around 1000.
"House demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem are illegal under international law, serve no obvious purpose, have severe humanitarian effects, and fuel bitterness and extremism. The EU adopted a declaration on this issue on the 10th November of 2008 and expressed its concern to the Israeli authorities through an official demarche to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 1st December of 2008"...
*************************
What's even worse, if that is possible, is that Israel makes these Palestinians pay for the destruction of their own homes -- like Saddam Hussein used to make the families of those he executed pay for the bullets.
Ma'an News Agency is reporting that one Palestinian in East Jerusalem just hired a Palestinian bulldoze driver to demolish his home that is slated for demolition, to avoid paying the extra fees to the Israelis. The Ma'an story is published here.
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